Coming Out of the Sports Closet.

By
Brad Calhoun

Left, Teammate of Michael Sam not caring that his teammate is gay. Right, Michael Sam

 

I might not even have many jokes for this post.  I usually love finding the humor in sports and in life.  I will start off by saying this should be an absolute non issue.  Who ever the best player is should play and if that player turns out to be gay, who cares? Right now from what I can see a majority of people are in support or apathetic to the fact.  I'm not sure what the logical reason for keeping homosexuals out other than scripture from a very old book.  Gay athletes aren't there to pick up guys/or girls they aren't there to push their beliefs on their teammates, they are there to compete just like everyone else. Its silly to even have to say that, of course they are just like us. We are the same and oh so different, that's beautiful.

Michael Sam is not a name I knew before he made his announcement.  He has been placed as undersized defensive end who could go in the 3rd or 5th round.  Will he be a great player? Its unlikely but it doesn't mean that it isn't significant.  Here is why I believe this is kind of a big deal.  Football is the manly sport and one of the last place you would find a homosexual (at least we thought).  I'm not one of the folks who want people to hold in their feelings and in my opinion locked in the closet.  Locked in the closet with fear.  What kind of life is that to live? I'm sure would feel great living in fear of some thing so simple as love.  Some argue that, "who cares? I didn't have to come out as straight".  I agree, who cares, but the fact of the situation is that people do care.  There are parents who "care" if their kid is gay.  There are employers who "care" if their employees are gay.  Acceptance is the domino that brings the whole house down..  I'm seeing more and more that society isn't allowing people to say whatever they want about homosexuals anymore without some social consequence.   I'm not a big politically correct guy but the views expressed by people who don't accept homosexuals is become less accepted by the masses.  I think elections have even shown that recently.

I never meant for this to be some political rant about my socially progressive views.  I love sports and sometimes sports helps with social change. This week I was proud of my sports and proud of society.  Especially during the sports cast of my local sports anchor, Dale Hansen.  I'll show the video that has become viral lately.  I posted this video before (currently as I'm typing almost 2.7 million views. Wow!) it become viral on my Facebook. I posted it not to be controversial but mostly because Dale said it better than I ever could.  When I heard the news I had similar thoughts to Dale but I couldn't make the comparison of the players who committed such awful acts and still accepted into the NFL. Well I posted it and I thought there is no way anyone who actually watches this will come away with a negative view to this. I was wrong.  Apparently one of my daughter's friend's dad did not like that AT ALL.  He went into a tirade and at first I gave him his time and then he went over the line.  I responded with "Ok" (which is my automatic response to end a debate I don't wish to continue) and ran to the "unfriend" button.  I wasn't going to allow anybody like that in my life.  I don't have time or patience for it.  I'll post his comment just so you know what I was dealing with.  Let me clarify though, I respect the right for people to be against gay marriage and gays in general but I have no respect for hatred.

Comments from my Dale Hansen post.

Who we go to bed with and who kiss has nothing to do with how we do our jobs.  A team that can't handle a gay player, probably isn't that good anyway.  A player that can't handle a gay team, probably isn't that good either.  Media distractions because you have a gay player, if you can't handle that either....you know.  I can't say I've always been comfortable with homosexuals, and I can't say I fully understand it to this day.  But its not about me.  I have a gay family member and I have friends who are gay, this issue is personal.  I'm ready for the day when this kind of "announcement" is like hearing someone's age.  Let's celebrate our differences because we all know this world would be quite boring if we were all the same.

Gribble To ESPN. Jake Kemp to produce. Who is Mino?

It looks like the higher ups are trying to salvage that ESPN radio station they acquired management rights.  Gribble is obviously going over there to help them out.  Jake Kemp is moving further up, seems like yesterday he was doing fill in Tickers.  Chris House was the catalyst for his success (not really).  The bad news about this is maybe no 1920s reporter guy and no Jake on the Hardline except for on WTDS.  Now some people might be asking about David Mino taking over the board op position.  Who is he? Well he has been a solid Ticket spare for the last few years.  Solid Twitter follow.  Let's hope he jumps in quickly to fill the big shoes of Grubes and Jake.  Jake was able to take over quite easily and make it entertaining.  I like this move but I also hate this move.  As my good friend Sean Bass told me "nobody got fired".   This is true.  The Ticket keeps on trucking.